On Saturday, the Italian state police announced on Twitter that it has seized 30 luxury vehicles — worth over 1.5 million euros — reportedly stolen from Canada to be sold in Turkey and Libya.
The stolen vehicles were being transferred to the two countries via transit through the Italian Salerno and Gioia ports.
Rai News reported that the customs authorities found 100 vehicles when searching 25 containers. They seized 30 after contacting the Canadian police and checking the authenticity of the vehicles’ identification numbers.
The luxury vehicles were being transferred to the ports of Mersin in Turkey and Khoms in Libya to be sold to wealthy people.
This is not the first incident in which cargo ships were used to smuggle items connected to Turkey into Libya.
According to a Reuters report published in February, Italian authorities had arrested the captain of a Lebanese-flagged cargo ship which was seized in the port of Genoa on suspicion of trafficking arms to Libya, including tanks and artillery.
The ship’s officer reportedly told the authorities that the weapons were loaded at the port of Mersin in Turkey for transport into Libya’s capital Tripoli.
According to the Syrian Observatory Human Rights (SOHR), Turkey has been sending Syrian mercenaries to fight in Libya. A total of 13,000 mercenaries have been brought to Libya, while nearly 3,000 more have been sent to Turkey for training, as of June 1.